English

At Meadlands, all of our children are authors. We are passionate about creating a learning environment that inspires, enthuses and strengthens these author’s voices; leaving the children with the confidence and skillsets they need to succeed. We believe that writing is, first and foremost, a purposeful and creative tool. Our lessons are driven by providing this purpose through imaginative contexts; it is here where children can not only be innovative through their language choices but also refine their use of grammar, punctuation and spelling strategies.

Writing lessons are taught explicitly every day. Children will learn the skills they need to excel as writers through a broad range of fiction and non-fiction genres. We also recognise the crucial role that reading plays in supporting our children as writers. It is for this reason that quality literature is at the heart of all our teaching, providing children with a meaningful context in which they can explore and be challenged. This was recognised in our 2018 Review where inspectors stated “students were given experiences in the classroom so they were then able to refer to them in their writing.”

These contexts do not just feed the imagination, they also ensure that children are applying the grammatical constructs of writing in a more genuine way. This will ensure that all our pupils are empowered with lifelong skills; ones that can be applied to any educational or career route our children choose to one day follow. A recent whole school review recognised how structured talk, classroom displays and feedback through marking supported pupils’ learning.

We take pride in ensuring that children are challenged and supported through the developing stages of the writing curriculum. This progress is monitored regularly and children are provided with the support they need to achieve their best; examples of this may include phonics interventions, within class support, 1:1 pupil conferencing or handwriting interventions. The effect of this is reflected in our Key Stage 1 and Kay Stage 2 results, which have consistently been above national average.

Key Stage 1

Writing

Year

Meadlands

National

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

2016

84%

24%

74%

2017

83%

30%

68%

16%

2018

88%

28%

70%

16%

Key Stage 2

Writing

Year

Meadlands

National

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

2016

84%

24%

74%

155

2017

83%

22%

76%

25%

2018

85%

28%

78%

Grammar

Year

Meadlands

National

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

2016

92%

32%

72%

22%

2017

92%

51%

77%

31%

2018

96%

31%

78%

Writing Awards:

Handwriting Licences

Children’s hard work and perseverance always pays off! Those children who have consistently maintained a pride in the appearance of their work will be awarded a handwriting pen. This decision is made by Miss Orson, our subject leader, on a Friday morning.

Information Packs for Parents:

Our writing, spelling and handwriting policy is currently under review, a link will be posted here shortly.

The National Curriculum has set a list of spellings which all children must know by the end of their year group or phase. Please find details of these spellings here so your child is able to practice at home:

Over the Easter holidays, children took part in a story writing competition. The entries produced tales of mermaids, chocolate buttons, ninja agents, chimps, ladybirds, vampires and even a duck who tried to steal McDonalds! As well as this, children were asked to design a Roald Dahl writing shed that will be built in our wildlife area at the end of this academic year.

Children’s achievements in writing are celebrated within every classroom, through a ‘Star Writer’ display. These are update regularly and recognise children’s efforts as well as inspiring others to do the same.

Subject Leader: Miss Davies

At Meadlands, reading is more than a curriculum subject; it is a way of life. Reading for pleasure is at the heart of everything we do, for we believe, and the research backs us up, that a child who reads for pleasure will be more successful in all aspects of life. It comes as no surprise that reading permeates our whole curriculum. The key areas for the discrete teaching of reading are phonics in Key Stage 1 and guided reading in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 but reading is a golden strand that runs through all of our subjects.

Phonics

Phonics is taught using the Read, Write Inc model (RWI). Children begin their phonics journey in Nursery where they learn set 1 sounds helped by cued articulation. In Reception children learn a sound a day. They are also introduced to “tricky” words, words which have to be learnt rather than spelt out. As each new sound/word is taught, the children continually revise and practise the previous sounds. As they become more confident, they begin to segment words into sounds in order to write whole words. Lessons take place weekly in Nursery and daily in Reception and Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2). In Year 2 the children revise previously taught phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (ways of writing the sounds) and learn a range of new ones

In June, the children in Year 1 are tested on their phonics in a national phonics screening check. Our school results are listed below together with the national results.

Year

Meadlands

National

2016

84%

81%

2017

100%

81%

2018

100%

83%

Guided Reading

Guided Reading happens every day for 30 minutes at Meadlands from Year 2 upwards. Guided Reading gives the class teacher an opportunity to not only hear the children read and discuss the book but also to develop their love of reading. A child’s journey through the week of guided reading could look something like this:

Monday: Pre-reading a chapter of the set book to discuss with their teacher the next day. Teachers are encouraged to read books rather than extracts of text as it gives a purpose to the sessions and also introduces the children to new authors.

Tuesday: Discuss the chapter with the group and their teacher. The teacher will have prepared questions to discuss and particularly in the older year groups, it can have the feel of a book club. We believe that children can often find reading out loud in front of their peers difficult and we don’t feel that it enables the children to make progress in their reading. Therefore, the teacher will hear the children read independently from the book while the other children are reading quietly.

Wednesday: Answering questions independently or as a group from the book they are reading. These questions are sometimes set by the group and sometimes by the teacher

Thursday: Children will be given a reading based activity, such as a comprehension.

Friday: Every group gets to read for pleasure where they have 30 minutes to read their own book.

We are very proud of our reading results as it reflects the commitment we have to the importance of reading and the belief and hope that this will translate into a love of reading for the children of Meadlands Primary School

Key Stage 1 Reading Outcomes

Year

Meadlands

National

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

2016

88%

47%

74%

24%

2017

86%

26%

76%

2%

2018

84%

40%

76%

26%

Key Stage 2 Reading Outcomes

Year

Meadlands

National

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

Expected Standard

Greater Depth

2016

96%

28%

74%

15%

2017

80%

38%

71%

25%

2018

96%

64%

75%

Meet some of our Poetry Slam 2018 finalists!

Reading Video - Y5Trim 2.mp4

Information for Parents:

Reading has been invested in heavily at Meadlands and our class book corners are full of great books; some have been chosen by the children, some by the Junior Leadership Team and some by our staff. Our aim was for there to be a mixture of contemporary and classic allowing a “way in” to reading for every children. There is a simple colour code system that runs consistently through from Year 1 to Year 6 enabling the children and teacher to feel confident that a child is choosing the right book.We are always on hand to give you tips and advice about book choices and have run successful workshops; Early Years phonics events through to whole school reading workshops. If you are stuck for a book, the following may be a good place to start:

Following on from a collaboration between the Rose Theatre in Kingston and our Year 4 children, the class studied Macbeth. They were inspired to create a dualogue in the style of a graphic novel.

Celebrating Reading at Meadlands

What is Ready Steady Read? Ready Steady Read is a half termly reading competition for the whole school. Our Junior Leadership Team Reading leads (left) often choose the books. Each class is assigned a book that they are encouraged to read independently but they are able to choose the book from any year group. There is a half termly draw where przies have included tickets for the Roald Dahl museum and book tokens and if a child has read one book from the list every half term then their name is entered into a grand draw at the end of the year.

World Book Day is one of the highlights of the year at Meadlands. This year we were very lucky to welcome Adrian Edmondson as our guest

Our children also organised a whole school book swap!

Poetry Slam has quickly become a firm favourite at Meadlands. This year we celebrated the centenary of the Votes for Women. With the support of our LAMDA teacher, Louise Lipton, poems are chosen for each class and children are invited to choose a poem to perform individually or in a group. The finalists perform in front of the school and a judging panel. It is always a very exciting, fun and often emotional fternoon. Every class in the school is represented.